Feed spring fever with books on tulips, California lilacs

"Tulips: Species and Hybrids for the Gardener"

Richard Wilford

Timber Press, 2006, $34.95

"Tulips: Species and Hybrids for the Gardener" is the perfect book to have in hand in the next few months as you try to figure out the identity of the tulips bursting forth in your own garden or around your neighborhood. And keep it nearby when ordering tulips for next spring, for the color photos and site-specific information is helpful in sorting through all the choices.

Though a book with greater visual emphasis might have more appeal for newer gardeners, "Tulips" contains a wealth of useful information on how to select and grow these most popular of bulbs. It would make a great companion to use in conjunction with photo-laden bulb catalogs.

Wilford knows his tulips; he's grown myriad different kinds at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in England for the past 15 years. Because people have loved tulips so long and well, they've been bred, grown, exchanged and collected over hundreds of years, resulting in a muddle of names. Wilford does his best to sort it out to the extent a gardener needs to grow tulips successfully.

The strength of the book is its emphasis on species tulips, which are underused in most of our gardens.

These little beauties are the best bet for tulips that bloom dependably year after year. They're shorter than the showier hybrids, more modest in color and shape, but their reliable emergence spring after spring is a great asset in any garden.

Wilford does not ignore all the blowsy, fringed, tall hybrids that are more familiar, and there's a chapter on them as well.

"Ceanothus"

Dieter Wilken

Timber Press, 2006, $39.95

It's great to find an entire book on plants as practical as ceanothus. So often monographs are devoted to esoteric plants that people love to study but rarely actually plant in their gardens.

Ceanothus, also known as California lilac, are a genus of plants known for solving problems in the landscape. They come in sizes from large bulky shrubs to sprawling groundcovers, all with a profusion of blue flowers ranging in tone from sweetly sky to intense cobalt.

There are few sights more lovely in the May garden than a shiny evergreen shrub covered in bright blue flowers. Ceanothus are drought tolerant, fragrant and beloved by bees.

One caution: Ceanothus require good drainage. Before I had a sunny slope in my garden, I killed off several ceanothus by planting them in soil that was too wet and heavy for these California natives.

This is the first book since the 1940s to explore the range of ceanothus available and all their planting possibilities. Written by a botanist and a nurseryman, it's a welcome combination of plant listings and information on how to successfully cultivate ceanothus.

Color photos show ceanothus espaliered between house windows, growing as part of shrub borders, sprawling over low walls and contained in pots. Drawings distinguish between the various species and cultivars.

I could have used more pruning information than the few general sentences, and it would have been helpful if descriptions included information on availability.

A list of sources might be the best promotion possible for these pleasing plants.

But these quibbles are made up for in the extravaganza of ceanothus descriptions which stretch the imagination and fuel plant lust.